Planner describes smart growth as a 3-legged stool
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- What's the recipe for smart growth?
The City Commission recently heard the ingredients one Central Florida planner recommended at a workshop, focusing on development.
Joel Ivey, with the Maitland-based Ivey Planning Group, described "smart growth" as a three-legged stool -- it must be economically sound, environmentally responsible and promote community livability.
Involved in smart growth for about three years, he said such projects include a mix of uses and housing and transportation options. They also tend to conserve open space and promote high quality development techniques, he said.
First, New Smyrna Beach needs to figure out what it wants in the way of development and have a solid master plan and vision, Ivey said.
"You have to build a (community) consensus on what you're trying to achieve," he said.
Then the city can tell developers what it wants and stick to its guns, Ivey said. When it identifies a good project, it needs to support it, he said, even if it faces some public opposition
"Most local governments are in a reactive mode, not a proactive mode," he said. "Have a vision you stick to once you've got it."
City Commissioner Lynne Plaskett asked how to deal with rural land, which lies outside the city now but eventually may be annexed into New Smyrna. Ivey said the city needs to ask why it's annexing the land and have a solid reason for doing so.
Plaskett also asked if infrastructure costs are cheaper when homes are clustered, instead of spread out on larger lots. It's costly to supply one house on 5 acres with central sewer and water, Ivey said. That type of development needs its own well and septic system, he said, which can be an environmental issue.
The most direct way the city can control development is with its code, Ivey said. Developers build to code and most cities don't realize their codes can date from the 1950s, producing structures that are no longer desirable.
"If you don't like what (development) you're getting -- you need to change your code," he told the commission. "A lot of them can be outdated."
The city also needs to figure out what is worth saving in the community, like sensitive wetlands and natural resources, and safeguard them, Ivey said. Historic buildings also need protected, he said, not necessarily left alone to fall down, but preserved.
Another way to encourage smart growth is through incentives to developers, he said. Business incentives need to be created, not by government officials in a vacuum, but by talking with merchants in the community. Residential uses mixed into downtown areas help keep them viable with regular customers, he said.
"Developers don't necessarily create the demand -- they respond to the demand," Ivey said. "If that sounds pro-development-I don't think it is. It's reality."
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